Aging, Saging

& A Course in Miracles

by Jon Mundy, Ph.D.

I’ll be 65 this spring. Or at least my body will. Years do not always make age. Inside, I’m about 35. If you’ve been through or you’re going though this rite-of-passage, you know you’re getting a lot of mail from the government, from life insurance and health insurance companies telling you how to navigate your way though the maze ahead. A fellow in his mid-sixties, now retired, came to one of my classes. He said he had decided to spend the rest of his time working on himself and figuring out the meaning of life. He was, he said, a frequent visitor to Barnes & Nobles, and he was reading all he could in philosophy and religion. He was an active meditator and he was studying his dreams. I thought that was great. The best thing we can do with this stage is to take it even deeper.

The greatest  potential for growth and self-realization

exists in the second half of life.

Carl Jung

Becoming a Forest Dweller

Hinduism divides life into three stages:

1. In the first stage, you study.

2. In the second, you marry and become a householder.

3. In the third, you become a forest dweller.

According to the Ancient Hindu texts, after your grand-children are born and you see your hair turning gray, it is time to take your spouse by the hand and head for the forest, where you can live simply, and have time to think. Though most Hindu senior citizens no longer take-off for the forest, the principle remains. There is a part of me that would love to grab Dolores by the hand and take off to Canada, find a snug log cabin with a good wood-burning stove and then hunker down and just quietly meditate, read, write and garden the rest of my life. In some branches of Hinduism there is a fourth stage of total renunciation after one’s spouse has died. This stage we go through by ourselves. Unfortunately, or better fortunately, we can’t afford to go off looking for a cabin and whatever Dolores and I do, we want to stay close to our daughter Sarah. 

Did you know  that according to legend, the guy who became Buddha  decided to seek enlightenment the day he got a touch of gray? "Gray hairs," the would-be Buddha said, "are like angels sent by the god of death." Anderson Cooper, CNN, September 27, 2005

Aging – Becoming More Conscious of the Spiritual Journey

You’ll find books out there on “reversing aging.” This seems a bit impractical as tick-tock goes the clock; and, while we might be able to “slow down” aging and live active healthy lives into our 90’s and beyond, we’re not likely to run the clock in reverse. We can, however, continue to lead vital, spiritually radiant and socially responsible lives. Aging should not be concealed or denied, but affirmed and experienced as a process by which the mystery of life is continually revealed to us. The older we get, the richer our life experience, the more wisdom we have to share. [It might be the case, however, that if I were younger I would know more. Although I don’t remember it, according to my mom when I was 15, I knew everything.]

In his book Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing and Dying, Ram Dass says that what is needed at this point is that we become even more conscious of the inner journey. Rather than denying aging or trying to reverse aging, how about embracing aging and let it carry us into saging. This means development of a contemplative life. The idea here is not only not to “fall asleep” as we age, but to continue to be even more awake! In saging, we look to enlighten the mind.

Open at the Top

Getting older can be a time of unprecedented growth enhancement, human enrichment, and spiritual development. The older we get, the more awareness we have of the past, the more we may also open to the expansiveness of the future. Ernest Holmes, the founder of Religious Science, said his philosophy was open at the top. He was always ready for newer insight and clearer ways of seeing. In the same way all of science is “provisional.” That is, it changes when better solutions are discovered. While I’m convinced that there is one truth which is unchanging, like an airplane in the sky or a ship on the ocean, I find I must continually adjust my setting ever more clearly toward that one true path which brings me home.

These are the soul’s changes. I don’t believe in aging.

I believe in forever altering one’s aspect to the sun.

Hence my optimism.  -- Virginia Woolf

I was standing on line at the bank and overheard a conversation between two young men in their 20’s who were standing in front of me. One of them said, “Oh Joe, Joe is 80 years old, nothing bothers him.” According to the Course, the last characteristic a Teacher of God develops is total open mindedness. If we’re totally open then we cannot be prejudicial. According to a study in Scientific American Mind in 2007, as people get older they tend to get either, progressively grumpier and mean-spirited or they get progressively laid back and receptive. People tend to go which ever way they are developing. Which way do you want to go? Fortunately, according to the article, by a slight majority, more people chose receptive than mean-spiritedness.

Looking Back

Does this ever happen to you? The older I get, the more distance there is in space and time, the more I sometimes miss daddy and mother and life on the farm. The Course asks us not to look back to the past in regret and remorse and as a rehearsal of guilt. There is no problem, however, in looking back in fond remembrance. Fortunately, my sister Ann and her family still live on the farm, so I’m lucky, I can if I wish still go wander around in the back pastures. Life was so simple during the 1950’s, things just were what they were and they were without question—one thing we never lose. I will love the farm and my family into perpetuity.

I finished my Masters Degree, in 1967, and came to New York City to work on a doctorate and wound up getting stuck here. It’s been a great place to get stuck. I lived in the city proper until 1977, and I’ve lived just outside the city now for 30 years. When I was growing up on the farm, if someone would have told me I would spend 10 years in New York City, (5 of those years in Brooklyn), I would have looked at them curious and said something like, “I don’t think so.” The Course says,

Therefore, the plan includes very specific contacts

 to be made for each teacher of God. 

There are no accidents in salvation.

Those who are to meet will meet,

 because together they have the potential for a holy relationship.

ACIM Manuel for Teachers, Section 3, Paragraph 1

For 6 years, I had an office inside General Theological Seminary in Manhattan. Built during the 19^th Century, General Theological looks a bit like Oxford University. There is a block long park in the middle with big Sycamore trees and a magnificent church. During my years there, the following Latin quote was tacked on my office door.

Fata volentum, ducunt trahunt nolentum.

Whoever is willing – the fates will lead

The unwilling they will drag along.

Fate takes each and every one of us wherever we need to go.

The curriculum is highly individualized, and all aspects

are under the Holy Spirit's particular care and guidance.

Section 29, Paragraph 2 Manual for Teachers of A Course in Miracles

Who have you met along the way that you had to meet even if that person was for you a great challenge? If I had not come to New York, I would not have met my wife Dolores, nor would I have my daughter Sarah. Nor, would I have met Helen Schucman, Bill Thetford, Ken Wapnick, Judy Whitson and all those who were so helpful for this faltering student of the Course.

   The Talking Stick

There is a tradition in certain African and American Indian tribes called the “talking stick.” When a decision needs to be made in a tribe, the adults sits around a circle with a stick stuck in a hole in the middle of the circle called a talking stick which is used to designate who has the right to talk. The leading elder will pick up the stick and begin the discussion. When he finishes what he has to say, whoever wished to speak next will take it, and say what they have to say. In some cultures the youngest person present has the option of speaking next and then they move on up to the next oldest. If they have nothing to say, they simply pass the stick. When everyone has said what they want to say, the stick is given back to the leading elder or sage. That individual will then evaluate the conversation and give their opinion as to what he/she thinks constitutes the consensus of the group. As a senior citizen “elder,” I would like to take the stick for a moment.

Some Cautionary Observations – Let’s Watch Out For

There is a section in the Ur text called “The Unwatched Mind” which calls upon us to “watch our minds” and see where maybe we’re in possible danger of going “off course.” A Sage is a wisdom keeper and guide, an actively responsible elder. It is the task of the sage to nurture upcoming generations and to aid in the healing of one’s spiritual community.

We live as much on the net and the web as we do in our local communities, so the definition of “community” has changed. Ours is a Course Community based on an ideal. As long as the ego continues to grab a hold and assert itself, there will no doubt be a certain amount of “foolishness” going on with the Course, a certain imprudence and naïveté similar to what was happening back when the Course first came on the scene.

1. Rushing to Completion – The Holy Spirit Told Me. . .

The first conference held on the Course was at the Barbizon Plaza in New York City on May 13, 1978. Although Helen only lived a few blocks away she was not there. Most everyone knows that while Helen was perfectly capable of “hearing” the Course, she had some of the same problems we all do in “applying” the Course. I personally felt like Jon - ah and the whale, when it came to the Course. The Call to be involved could not have been clearer. It came from Helen, in fact, if I’m to believe the Course, and I do, then it came from Jesus. And, the whale which swallowed me and never spit me out, was a Big Blue. We are all called by Jesus. The question is not “is there a calling,” but “am I doing what he asks me to do?

We don’t really understand the Course until we are able to put the Course into practice. Fortunately, we don’t have to “fully” understand it in order to begin to put the principles to work. As we do the Course, we being to understand how it is that this world is an illusion. We begin to see more and more clearly, not at first what is true, but what is not true! Understanding what is not true is very helpful. In Plato’s dialogue, The Theaetetus, Socrates concludes by saying that Theaetetus (who claims to know what knowledge is) has been helpful for now, at least we know what knowledge is not! The Course begins with 50 Miracle Principles. Among those, only number 7 tells us something very specific, namely, “Miracles are everyone’s right but purification is necessary first.” First, we must clean the slate. First, we must be willing to look inside ourselves, see that which is of the ego; and therefore, not us or not true and then let it go. 

One of the things I always admired about Helen was how she kept herself out of the limelight when it came to the Course. She regularly refused interviews for television and radio and her name did not appear on the first edition of the Course. It was only added as a preface to the Course in 1992. Helen was not at the first conference because she did not want to be recognized in a large public arena, and there were enough of us who knew who she was that had we approached her, others would have been drawn to her as well.

Helen was also not there as it was clear to Helen that among these “first teachers” of the Course, there were some who had done the serious work of the Course. There were some students who were going around saying, “The Holy Spirit told me such and such.” While indeed God’s Voice speaks to each and every one of us every day, it’s most likely trying to help guide us in our own spiritual journey and it’s not about other people or the future. Helen had little patience for the phony stance of those who believed they had already mastered the Course. Every once in a while, you will meet someone who will say, “I did that,” or “I took that,” as though the Course was something you could complete like a class in college. One of the advantages of aging is that if you stick with anything long enough, it will begin to work for you and the Course “works” for me. We are very fortunate to have the Course. What great luck to have found such a clear path to Home!

2. Diluting the Course.

The Course says what it says. While those of us who write and speak about its contents enjoy sharing our views, there is nothing like the Course all by itself. The Course was meant to be a self-study and while it is natural that we would evolve toward groups, it can be done just on one’s own. The Course also does not need a mythology. Mythology often kills faith, as eventually everyone understands that it just cannot possibly be true. As it is, there is enough mythology around who Helen and Bill were. Thankfully, due to the good work of Ken and Judy, a fairly clear picture of Helen and Bill exists and there has been no attempt to cover over any blemishes.

My own experience of Helen was quite wonderful. We were not colleagues as she was with Bill and others. I was 30 when we met and someone she took under her wing; she could see that I was stumbling my way through life. I was someone she was trying to help and when Helen was in her “helping mode” she was quite magnificent. While dedicated to understanding the spiritual life, I was at that point still faltering mostly because of my hearts response to just too many beautiful women.

3. Making a Living Working with The Course

I don’t pay attention to “chat room” or “conversations” on the internet and I’m glad I don’t. Although chat rooms may start with the good intention of clarifying a topic like the Course, and they provide a place for community, they can degenerate into gossip, tittle-tattle and hearsay. A friend recently drew my attention to someone in one of these chat rooms who was criticizing anyone who was making money working with the Course. Those of us who work full time with the Course do so because as Socrates expressed it 2,500 year ago -- whatever we do with our lives, we must not be untrue to our destiny – not being true to God’s call in our lives is truly depressing. We do this work because we love it and feel called to do it.

We can’t run away from life but I’m sure that we all can, like Thoreau said, “simplify, simplify, simplify.” (Emerson said one “simplify” would have been enough.). I’ll soon be 65 but there is no way I can retire. Nor would I want to. How can you retire from doing what you thoroughly enjoy? Fortunately, I have to work. Many years ago ministers were given the option to check out of the social security system, so I checked out. In retrospect, it would have been better not to have done that, but I was young and foolish and thought I would be able to do it better on my own. I am entitled to a small stipend for the time I spent as an adjunct university lecturer. I watched a show one evening on people in their 90’s who seemed destined to live past 100. Every one of them was working. Though it looks like fun and good exercise, I did not come here to play golf. I can, however, see the value in slowing down.

4. Being A Course in Miracles Fundamentalist

I was talking with a friend, who said he had been accused of being A Course in Miracles fundamentalist. I think I’m a Course fundamentalist. I think the “fun” should come before da “mental.” (Sorry, Dr. Baba Jon temporarily took hold). Seriously, I think I am a fundamentalist, I believe the Course is 100% true. I have never doubted the Course, its origin or its authorship. Having known Helen, I can assure you that there is no way that Helen, as wonderful and as intelligent as she was, could possibly have written this Course. The Course is just too beautiful. Sometimes it’s so beautiful you want to weep because of its beauty. (In 1979, when I was working on my doctorate, one of my professors said, referring to the Course, “You don’t think this is serious theology, do you Mundy?”)

You cannot point to one line in the Course that I would disagree with. I’ve never found anything like the Course. The closest is perhaps the Tao Te Ching, but that’s only 81 verses and it was written for a different age. The Course is the book of the 21^st Century. The father of Psychology in the United States, Williams James, taught the first course in Psychology as separate from Philosophy at Harvard University in 1885. That’s how new modern depth psychology is. It is no accident that Bill and Helen understood Freud and Jung and the work of some of their contemporaries. The Course is psychologically sophisticated. Thus, many psychologists and psychiatrists are attracted to it. The good thing about being a Course fundamentalist is that you don’t feel as though you need to go on a missionary effort with the Course, neither is it necessary to confront people who see things differently that we do. The Course is a way, not the way.

5. Should the Course be understood metaphorically or literally?

There is a discussion going on now as to whether the Course should be taken literally or metaphorically. Both are true. Sometimes it is metaphorical because that’s the best for us to understand it. Jesus spoke in parables because, “in hearing they do not hear and in seeing they do not see.” Sometimes the Course needs to be understood metaphorically especially when talking about metaphysics. God does not, for example, weep tears, nor does God have hands, etc. At other times, I think we should take it quite literally especially when it tells us how we should live.

6. Developing Schools of Thought in the Course Community

I’m currently teaching a course for Marist College on The History of Philosophy. One of the things you notice as you go from philosopher to philosopher through time is that many of them will say that while the philosopher before them may have been right in many ways, there is a place where the previous guy was off and they are going to set the record straight. Such was the case for Kierkegaard and Schopenhauer in relationship to Hegel. Though there is one Course, and one truth which it is speaking, it is inevitable that there will be different ways of understanding the Course. The important thing is not to be in competition, nor try to make another wrong. Truth will, after all, prevail in the end. As the Course so clearly says,

If the center of the thought system is true, only truth extends from it.

But if a lie is at its center, only deception proceeds from it.

Chapter 5, Section V B, Paragraph 2 of ACIM

While it is inevitable that we will have different “schools of thought” it is important that we not develop Course in Miracles denominations. If you set up a hierarchical system, you have someone on top, someone in the middle, someone on the bottom and ego games going on regarding who gets to be on top. 

7. Claiming Enlightenment

Enlightenment does exist. It is possible to awaken.

Unbounded freedom and joy, oneness with the Divine, awakening into a state of timeless grace – these experiences are more common than you know and not far away. There is one further truth, however: 

They don’t last  . . . after the honeymoon comes the marriage.

Jack Kornfield in After the Ecstasy, the Laundry, Introduction

Enlightenment is an extraordinary experience. It involves a leap to an entirely new state of being. Having made the jump, it can be a precarious position. Without attention, spiritual insight can turn into ego-aggrandizement. How many of us know how much “stuff” may yet lie hidden in the cellars of the unconscious? The longer I’ve lived, the more “stuff” I discover that I left buried somewhere, which I may still need to look at. I think I’m beyond judgment and then make a judgment. I think I’m beyond anger and then I discover some irritation and realize -- I’m not there yet. The ego often plays the role of "sneaky Pete," slipping in the back door when we aren’t looking. Fools do indeed rush in where angels fear to tread. Zen Master Dogen said that a Zen master’s life is one continuous mistake. According to modern mystic Bernadette Roberts, in order to reveal the full strength of the souls’ cementedness in God, there is need for continual trials and tests of every kind. Only in this way can there arise the revelation of “that” which lies behind the door at the center. She thus writes:

Trials alone are the vehicles of unity’s revelation,

so much so that the most terrible of human trials

is the herald of the greatest of human revelations.

Bernadette Roberts, The Path to No Self

I place no claims on enlightenment. I would rather say that I am not enlightened and be wrong about that than to say that I am enlightened and to be wrong about that. Claiming enlightenment before we’re there is a bit like skating on thin ice, a bit like little girls dressing up in mothers clothes pretending to be grow-ups. Like a lot of folks, I have had the opportunity of seeing through “some” of the clouds. Like everyone on this planet, I’m also still working my way home. I am now and have since the early 1960’s been a student/teacher. Beyond that, I make no spectacular claims.

Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be.

Robert Browning

Peace,